Mac Fix Plus: DIY Dupe

Today I have a quick little diy for you all! My version of Macs Prep and Prime Fix Plus mist. If anyone has ever tried Fix Plus then chances are you absolutely love it. Honestly, it’s SO worth the money in my opinion, but I recently ran out of my last bottle and thought; well, this is a perfect opportunity to try out a new DIY and see if I can make a similar dupe/product. If you haven’t tried Mac Fix Plus – basically its a makeup priming spray, setting spray, facial re-hydrating mist and can also be used to pack on and intensify your eye shadows. It is however pretty pricey at $22-$25 dollars a bottle. So if you want to learn how to make a quick and easy dupe- keep scrolling!

Ingredients

1 Cup warm water – I recommend using distilled or bottled

2-4 Tablespoons of Aloe Vera Gel

1 Tablespoon of Nivea Men Cooling Shave Balm (optional)

1/4 Teaspoon of Your Favorite Facial Moisturizer

You will also need a fine mist spray bottle! I purchased mine at the dollar store 🙂

When I made this spray, I wanted it to be two things.

Made with products that would be easily available to anyone. Things that you may already have at home or products that could be picked up at any drugstore. I know it can be hard for a lot of people to find specialty stores for specific ingredients so I really wanted to keep it simple for you all!

I wanted it to be easily customize-able to your own needs and wants! So you can kind of choose the intensity of your product and also customize it to fit your needs.

The main reason why Fix Plus works so amazingly is because of glycerin. Glycerin basically works like glue when it comes to beauty products and you will find A LOT of primers, facial mists, and setting sprays all use glycerin.

I originally was going to use straight up glycerin for this DIY. I actually have some that I bought a while back at my local heath foods store. However I couldn’t find any glycerin at my local drugstores so I opted instead for products that contained high amounts of glycerin for those of you who don’t want to go out and buy it – However if you want to be more true to the actual Fix Plus – I would purchase some glycerin either online or at a health food store and adjust the recipe to 2-3 tablespoons of glycerin and 1 tablespoon of aloe vera.

This is just your basic run of the mill aloe vera gel, but I wanted to show you guys that you want to pick up a gel that contains glycerin as the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd ingredient. This one contains it as the third. The great thing about using aloe vera gel is that it’s soothing, combats redness and moisturizes the skin. Glycerin by itself really doesn’t have much in the way of benefits for your skin, but by using aloe vera; you’re not only going to be getting that fixative, but you will also be getting some great moisture and skin benefits. P.S (Whenever I run out of primer – I use this gel. It works like a charm as a primer)

So I threw this product in there basically because I just love the smell ( it literally smells like a beautiful man in a bottle) and the cooling soothing feeling it gives my skin. It’s another product that has a super high concentration of glycerin which is why it works like a dream as a primer. It’s totally not necessary but if you are going to skip this product in your mix – replace it with another tablespoon of the aloe vera gel.

And here we have my current favorite moisturizer. You can use any facial moisturizer of your choice for this step and honestly this is another one of those steps that if you want to, you can skip. I personally just have SUCH DRY SKIN that adding in a bit of moisturizer really amps up this product for me and it’s SO nice to spray on my face throughout the day to just re-moisturize and refresh.

The Process

Finally! On to the process. It’s SO simple guys. First take one cup of pure filtered water. I don’t recommend using tap water just because a lot of tap waters contain salts/softeners/chlorine. You really want pure water so I just used bottled and warmed it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Having the water warm really helps the products to melt and mix much easier.

Next add in your aloe vera (or glycerin if you have it). This is where you get to tweak it to your liking. If you want more of a moisturizing or refreshing spray 2 tablespoons is plenty. If you are wanting a more fixative and makeup setting spray 3-4 tablespoons will do the trick! I used 3 tablespoons since I am also using the Nivea After Shave Balm.

Next I added in 1 tablespoon of my Nivea Mens After Shave Balm.

And finally, I added in a cute little quarter teaspoon of moisturizer!

Now just mix it all up until all of the ingredients are blended and liquefied! You should end up with a product looking similar to this. Mine turned out with a beautiful green tint from the aloe vera gel, but you can definitely opt for a clear or colorless gel as well.

Now just pop it in your spray bottle and you’re done!

Lets test it out!! <3

Using a black Tarte eyeshadow and just a regular rounded eye shadow brush: I did one swipe in the shadow and one swipe on the hand! The line on the left is without the fix plus dupe spray and the line on the right is with! As you can see I got a lot more intensity out of my shadow using the spray.

I also did a smudge test of the shadows! The shadow that I used the fix plus dupe on did not budge unless I rubbed really hard; unlike the shadow without the fix plus dupe- it was super easy to just wipe and smear away.

Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE Macs Fix Plus. But this actually really did surprise me with how well it worked and how nice it felt on my skin. It’s a definite DIY dupe for the real thing and you can save yourself some extra cash! I’m definitely going to be picking up a travel size spray bottle for this product so that I can just throw it in my purse to take with me wherever I go!

So I hope you guys give it a try and love it! Let me know what you think and if you end up tweaking the recipe at all!